DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA DONG and my beloved friends
President Riggs reads to us from Alma 22, verse 4 every transfer meeting. The king is asking Aaron why Ammon is not the one to come teach him. Aaron's response: "Behold the Spirit of the Lord has called [Sister Jeppsen] another way; she has gone to the land of [WARRENTON 1st] to teach the people [there with her newest companion SISTER SMITH]."
Oh how excited I am!! I praise and honor my Lord and King and I thank and rejoice in my God and Father! I absolutely love my new ward, Warrenton 1st. Warrenton is all sorts of country. The area ranges from the most rural to the most wealthy and it covers a HUGE amount of land. While our area is ginormous, our car miles are few, so I'm happy to report that there is a need to bike every so often. The ward was only recently opened to proselyting missionaries and Sister Smith has been serving here for the past 6 months. She claims to be the designated "assessment and preparatory missionary." I love her. We are opposite in so many ways. She is practical, I am hopeful. She has mastered the mechanics, I run on faith. She's sarcastic, I'm cheerful. We balance one another and I am very excited and grateful to learn from her. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew I would struggle with the very limited amount of miles we are alotted, and I am so very blessed to have Sister Smith who is master at it. President has informed us that the area will be divided next transfer and we will be bringing Elders in so I will not have to worry about miles when she leaves.
I thought I would be training this transfer (which is only 5 weeks due to the shortened length of MTC training time), but I am so grateful that I am not! I only want to do what the Lord would have me do. And I trust Him with all my heart. At the pulpit, President told me though that I would be training next transfer. But we'll see if God thinks so when next transfer rolls around haha.
I have prayed and fasted to know how I can help this ward. For in the entire month of January, only one new investigator was found and in the entire year of 2013, only one was converted and baptized. And oh how Father in Heaven has truly opened the eyes of my understanding!
In my first day here, we found an incredible man named Todd. As we only had enough time to knock on one door after walking down a long dirt road, we prayed and asked Father whether to go to the house on the right or the left. We both felt the left so we went to house on the left. Todd answered the door, and because of our rule of having another woman in the home, he stood outside in the 20 degree weather with us. He has been so prepared! We taught him at his doorstep and left him with the Restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon. That evening he informed us that he had read through the entire pamphlet and was working on the Book of Mormon. I know, with every fiber of my being, with all the energy of my soul, that God will direct us to find his children who are ready to receive the fulness of the gospel at this time. Though Sister Smith and our ward mission leader, Brother Howard are skeptical, I know in whom I trust. God has blessed Centreville 2nd ward with an abundance of new people, searching for the truth and with an increased involvement of the ward members becoming anxiously engaged in His work. I know that God will do the same in the Warrenton 1st ward.
Its interesting to see that both Centreville 2nd and Warrenton 1st started in very similar states when I first arrived. The missionaries before me have truly been instruments in preparing the members and the area, then it seems as though Father uses me to ignite the fire. My first Sunday here, Bishop had the Relief Society and Priesthood meetings combine to discuss the vision he had received for missionary work in our ward. How incredible!! And through me, the Spirit opened with them to 1 Nephi 10:17, exhorting them with all the energy and love of my heart to do as Nephi did and to desire to see, hear, and know of the vision their Bishop, their stake president, their mission president, their apostles, their prophet, and their God have of what they can become. We must each diligently seek to gain His vision. "One progresses only as fast as he gains knowledge" (Bible Dictionary, 721). May we all progress towards life eternal, even to know Him, our Lord and our God.
As David stood before Goliath, trusting that the God who delivered him in times past would deliver him even now, I stand before Warrenton, trusting that the God who transformed Centreville 2nd in times past would do so even now for Warrenton 1st. I love Him. And I will trust in Him forever
LOVE SISTER JEPPSEN
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